2019-08-27: Coping with Make Believe

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  • Log: 2019-08-27: Coping with Make Believe
  • Cast: Ivan, Lydia Seren
  • Where: Besaid
  • Date: August 27, 2019
  • Summary: Ivan and Lydia go on a treasure hunt to take their minds off of Lubov's impending arrival. Ivan hits on the idea that his problems wouldn't trouble him so much if literally forgot what they were.

==================================<* Besaid *>==================================

Besaid is a small tropical island at the southernmost point of the Spiran archipelago, almost as far south as one can get and still be part of Spira. The island features a large beach and seaport, a small village surrounded by forests and waterfalls, and a temple of Yevon. Its relative isolation from the outside world has resulted in a pastoral, almost idyllic life for its few inhabitants; if not for the few Summoners traveling to pray to the Fayth, Besaid would see almost no visitors at all.

It is also home to the lowly Aurochs, a blitzball team of which the less said is better.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxJE6SSX-aw


DG: A party led by Lydia Seren is now entering Lapisera Mines.
DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
=============================<* Lapisera Mines *>=============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Guts Man's Ass *>=======================
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 3          | 
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 Once, there were numerous entrances to the Lapisera Mines. Then, Odessa       
 teleported the Guts-Dozer inside of it and ARMS drove it out. The massive     
 form of the Guts-Dozer has made a new entrance: a gaping chasm, with          
 treadmarks torn into the ground and huge tears where the Guts-Dozer ripped    
 through the rock with its bare hands.                                         
                                                                               
 While an entrance exists, it is far from stable. It seems the immense         
 derriere of the Guts-Dozer has created an unstable cavern. As you enter, you  
 find that rubble and debris have collapsed in its wake... and worse,          
 sometimes, chunks of rock fall from the entrance. It both has to be cleared   
 out and dodged.                                                               
                                                                               
 And, of course, one might boggle at what possibly tore its way from this      
 place? A huge fiend... or something worse?                                    
                                                                               
 DA-NAAAAAA!!                                                                  
=Dungeon Conditions: Cripple, Madness=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Yeah Lydia has no idea what happened in the Mines here. But it is importantly a new 'ruin' to explore and even more importantly than that, it's a ruin that has very little to do with their current problems and will probably be really distracting from what they're all worried about and beating themselves up over! It's good enough for her!

Indeed, Lydia is making a herculean effort here to keep in good spirits even though it's clearly some kind of front.

"Geeze what happened here?" Lydia asks aloud of nobody in particular.

She then looks back over to Ivan. "I guess there's one way to find out! ...Or maybe... not find out because it's all over?" She tilts her head curiously. "Anyway... uh..." Lydia hefts up her baseball bat (Tiebreaker) and gets to work at smashing rubble to smaller rubble and otherwise trying to clear the place out so they can actually get a looksee as to what's going on here.

"This'll be fun." She says. "A good break from...everything!"

DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Good Luck Bat toward her party's challenge, Guts Man's Ass.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

Ivan has a vague idea of what he thinks he's going to do now, but it's the kind of plan that sucks and you can't say out loud to anyone. He just has to hope that first off, he has the guts to do it when the time comes, second, that it works and isn't just a creative way to die, and third, that the others didn't come up with similar plans, or else there's going to be some Gift of the Magi shit going down.

He doesn't really know if getting his mind off of it is possible or if he's up for an adventure, but maybe it will be a good change of pace from feeling like his heart is going to explode as he waits around not being able to do anything about anything. And there's stuff here to smash. Good call, Lydia.

Ivan brings out his warhammer smashes some debris. We can just ignore that he might not be focusing on pieces of debris that are particularly in the way of anything, sight line or otherwise.

"Yeah, a good break!" BANG "I already forgot" BANG "What we even" BANG "Came here to get away from!"

DG: Ivan has used his Tool Warhammer toward his party's challenge, Guts Man's Ass.
=============================<* Lapisera Mines *>=============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Guts Man's Ass *>=======================
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 3          | 
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 Once, there were numerous entrances to the Lapisera Mines. Then, Odessa       
 teleported the Guts-Dozer inside of it and ARMS drove it out. The massive     
 form of the Guts-Dozer has made a new entrance: a gaping chasm, with          
 treadmarks torn into the ground and huge tears where the Guts-Dozer ripped    
 through the rock with its bare hands.                                         
                                                                               
 While an entrance exists, it is far from stable. It seems the immense         
 derriere of the Guts-Dozer has created an unstable cavern. As you enter, you  
 find that rubble and debris have collapsed in its wake... and worse,          
 sometimes, chunks of rock fall from the entrance. It both has to be cleared   
 out and dodged.                                                               
                                                                               
 And, of course, one might boggle at what possibly tore its way from this      
 place? A huge fiend... or something worse?                                    
                                                                               
 DA-NAAAAAA!!                                                                  
=Dungeon Conditions: Cripple, Madness=========================================
========================<* Lapisera Mines - Round 1 *>========================
=========================< Results - Guts Man's Ass >=========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lydia Seren                         0 --(0)--> 0                   Pass
Good Luck Bat                       2   Brute   Effects: Strengthen           
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ivan                                0 --(0)--> 0                   Pass
Warhammer                           3   Brute   Effects: Rally                
----------------------------------< Party >-----------------------------------
Leader: Lydia Seren                 0 --(20)--> 20                 Pass
Conditions: Cripple|Madness
Effects: Strengthen(1)
==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Lydia Seren has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use
party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
DG: Ivan has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Lapisera Mines *>==============================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Mine Collapse *>=========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The Lapisera Mines are ancient. The wooden timbers that hold them up show no  
 small amount of rot and decay, especially where water has seeped in from the  
 constant storms of the Thunder Plains. Sometimes they collapse -- and as you  
 move through the tunnel, one collapses ahead of you. Rock and rubble crushes  
 down, blocking the path ahead off.                                            
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Tire=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

"Wait really?" Lydia asks as if saying that escapism is all well and good but lets keep our fantasies in the realm of reality. She didn't think it would be THAT easy.

Regardless, that pile of rocks doesn't stand a chance and soon the entrance to Guts Man's--the entrance to the Lapisera Mines is open! They have successfully managed to exert their will on the reality before them and open up a path forward!

Lydia points forward and adds, "Onward...! To Adventure!" She marches on right ahead before pausing to add, "If that's alright."

She wouldn't want to adventure out of Ivan's comfort zone today. Today is all about helping Ivan relax. And to help Lydia relax but Lydia is confident she doesn't need help with that. She's as cool as cucumber. But if the tension doesn't drop within her friendsphere she might start screaming in the Macalania Woods!

And we can't have that!

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

Ivan is not sure if he actually tricked Lydia with his very ambitious lie about having forgotten about his dad coming to town any day now to kill his sister and possibly himself, or if they're just kind of doing a make-believe scene together. His brow wrinkles for a moment, and then he says, "Yeah, absolutely!" because he's doing a make-believe scene, at least, even if it's by himself.

The way is cleared, and then Lydia charges forward, before pausing to make sure he's on board with that. He hefts his warhammer over his shoulder and nods, looking only a little too grave about the prospect of walking through a mine doorway.

Well, they get in. And they make it like one room ahead into the dungeon before the ceiling ahead of them crashes in, leaving an entirely new and hauntingly familiar pile of rubble to clean up.

Ivan pauses, frowning. ...This place does seem a tiny bit like it could kill them at any moment. Or maybe just him, which would probably be pretty unpleasant for Lydia.

He puts that thought aside and goes back to smashing and making bad lie-jokes.

"Yeah, nothing like a good treasure hunt to make you forget all your troubles! I forgot all kinds of things! Who am I again?"

DG: Ivan has used his Tool Warhammer toward his party's challenge, Mine Collapse.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

"Wow! Incredible!" Lydia says, either going along with his make believe scenario or totally falling for it. It's honestly hard to tell which at this point though maybe she didn't originally know it was a kind of game until now and is now going along with it? Or she was simply amazed by how good Ivan IS at make believe. All those light novels clearly help out.

Lydia frowns at a pile of rubble that has appeared basically immediately after the first pile of rubble. She crosses her arms and says, "Um." at that. "Wow. I didn't expect the mine to be that bad off." She rubs at the back of her neck briefly before grabbing ahold of her necklace and giving the star a small squeeze. This weird piece of jewelry that someone gave her for some reason and whose identity is still mysterious means a great deal to her. Or at least, she has forgotten how to take it off.

Lydia joins in the smashing. At least this is cathartic!

"Maybe you're Lydia." Lydia suggests. "That name is faintly familiar to me. Whomever it belongs to! She was probably someone real cute."

Meanwhile she smashes a boulder to death with a baseball bat loudly but well Ivan knows this drill by now and frankly joins in on it so really if nothing else in their live, this they have in common. It may be the KEY THREAD, the TIE THAT BINDS.

"Luckily we still know how to swing bludgeons. That's a key life skill there." Lydia adds.

DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Good Luck Bat toward her party's challenge, Mine Collapse.
==============================<* Lapisera Mines *>==============================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Mine Collapse *>=========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The Lapisera Mines are ancient. The wooden timbers that hold them up show no  
 small amount of rot and decay, especially where water has seeped in from the  
 constant storms of the Thunder Plains. Sometimes they collapse -- and as you  
 move through the tunnel, one collapses ahead of you. Rock and rubble crushes  
 down, blocking the path ahead off.                                            
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Tire=============================================
=========================<* Lapisera Mines - Round 2 *>=========================
==========================< Results - Mine Collapse >===========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lydia Seren                         0 --(23)--> 23                 Fail
Good Luck Bat                       2   Brute   Effects: Strengthen           
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ivan                                0 --(18)--> 18                 Pass
Warhammer                           3   Brute   Effects: Rally                
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Lydia Seren                 20 --(10)--> 30                Fail
Conditions: Cripple|Madness|Tire(2)|Weaken(2)
Effects: Strengthen(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Lydia Seren has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 exploration! If anyone needs to use
party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

"You don't know, either? We must have found some sort of... amnesia mines...!" says Ivan, as Lydia decides to join in the game. "I've heard of those, mostly I just remember, yeah, I remember how to smash things and I remember that there are amnesia mines. That's pretty much it."

Boy, this pile of rubble is a lot tougher than the first one to crack their way through. It really takes them a while. It's pretty exhausting, actually. But the real goal here is less about making progress and more about pretending not to think about their problems, so perhaps it's actually a win...?

"I don't know if I'm Lydia, but it does sound like someone... ..." he reddens and can't quite go for it. "... um, it does sound like someone cool to hang out with. I guess we'll have to make up new identities though if we don't know who we are anymore. I will be, um, I will be Vlad. I sell fake gemstones that are just rocks I collect in old mines like this one and then paint shiny colors."

DG: Lydia Seren has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Lapisera Mines *>=============================
==========<* CHALLENGE - Water Level - Makeshift Drainage Systems *>==========
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 3          | 
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 The next portion of the Lapisera Mines has flooded. The water here is         
 seawater, and it seems the already-tarnished metal doors and reinforcements   
 are rusting. Crossing the entire flooded section might be impossible for      
 your entire party -- it seems to stretch on for a long time. However,         
 several of the large metal doors appear to be watertight. If opened, that     
 could allow the water to drain into lower shafts. Of course, a wrong move     
 might flood parts of the dungeon you hope to enter... or unleash some fiends  
 hidden within.                                                                
                                                                               
 This is an underwater challenge.                                              
=Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

"Oh okay. Hmm. If you're Vlad... I wonder who that makes me." Lydia considers and then sweats faintly because now she's on the spot and she can't think of one. "Uhhh what's my secret made up name, Vlad?" Wow she didn't even stumble onto Vlad. But to be fair Vlad has the same number of letters and even some of the same letters.

She gets distracted as they head into another area and it seems that--it's pretty flooded. Lydia looks around a bit as she frowns and tries to figure out which is the proper way to handle this problem.

Eventually she points ot a door. "There! I bet that drains the water!" Then she pauses and looks towards another metal door and points to that. "Or that one?"

She frowns. "Hmm... which way?" She picks up Schrodinger (where'd he come from?!) and guides the cat around a bit, the creature's tiny widdle paw pointing at one of the doors.

"That one?" Lydia asks. "What do you think, Vlad??"

Does he want to keep leaving his fate up to cat?

DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Schrodinger the Cat toward her party's challenge, Water Level - Makeshift Drainage
Systems.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

"Ummm," says Ivan - er - Vlad. "Your name is Delfina and I guess you must obviously be some kind of cat trainer." He lingers just outside the flooded area, wondering if there is a way to avoid wading in entirely. Lydia spots two doors that might help drain the place, and lets her cat choose between them. Ivan blinks. He honestly did forget about the cat, again, somehow. Amnesia mines aren't real, are they...?

"That door looks good to me," he says. "I think your cat looks like he understands mine drainage systems pretty well."

Ivan certainly doesn't.

DG: Ivan has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Water Level - Makeshift Drainage Systems.
=============================<* Lapisera Mines *>=============================
==========<* CHALLENGE - Water Level - Makeshift Drainage Systems *>==========
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 3          | 
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 The next portion of the Lapisera Mines has flooded. The water here is         
 seawater, and it seems the already-tarnished metal doors and reinforcements   
 are rusting. Crossing the entire flooded section might be impossible for      
 your entire party -- it seems to stretch on for a long time. However,         
 several of the large metal doors appear to be watertight. If opened, that     
 could allow the water to drain into lower shafts. Of course, a wrong move     
 might flood parts of the dungeon you hope to enter... or unleash some fiends  
 hidden within.                                                                
                                                                               
 This is an underwater challenge.                                              
=Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
========================<* Lapisera Mines - Round 3 *>========================
============< Results - Water Level - Makeshift Drainage Systems >============
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lydia Seren                         23 --(28)--> 51                Pass
Schrodinger the Cat                 2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten            
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ivan                                18 --(33)--> 51                Fail
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC                
----------------------------------< Party >-----------------------------------
Leader: Lydia Seren                 30 --(10)--> 40                Fail
Conditions: Cripple|Madness|Suffer(1)|Tire(1)|Weaken(1)
Effects: Enlighten(1)
==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Lydia Seren has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 exploration! If anyone needs to use
party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
DG: Ivan has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Lapisera Mines *>==============================
============================<* CHALLENGE - Buers *>=============================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Some fiends can be found inside of the Lapisera Mines, most of them from the  
 Thunder Plains outside. When you come into this room, you find several        
 Buers: huge, winged creatures with a massive eyeball. They shoot out rays of  
 energy that threaten to paralyze, and swoop down with vicious claws!          
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

"Delfina! That's a pretty fancy name. I wondder if--oh a cat trainer. I guess a fancy cat trainer." Is Delfina really a specifically fancy name.

"Yeah Schrodinger knows their stuff." Lydia says moments before opening a door and--

--SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH--

Lydia's head floats underwater (along with the rest of her), Schrodinger riding her head like some sort of makeshift boat.

SCHRODINGER CHOSE POORLY. But that's okay. In some world, Schrodinger picked wisely.

Too bad it's not this world but it's comforting to know that there's a version of you out there that's nice and warm and dry right?

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

The good news is that after the door spits all that water onto them, it ultimately leads somewhere dry (since it already spit all the water that was in the new room out onto them). The bad news is they have to swim there, or maybe like, jump, if you're Lydia. But they swim or climb or jump through the door, and they come out into a new room, one that's dryer but still damp since it had been full of water until they let it out.

Vlad-or-Ivan shivers a little and squishes some water out of his ponytail and sighs about life, although even swimming through questionable mine water is a better experience than what's waiting ahead.

"At least it didn't flush us with any garbage," he says. "...Not that I remember such a thing happening, but it just seems like a bad thing to happen to anyo..."

He hesitates. "I feel watched. Do you feel watched?"

They turn to find several giant eyeball monsters with wings staring down at them from slightly overhead.

Being noticed makes them apparently panic and flap about chaotically (maybe they are shy?), and they start to shoot EYE LASERS and swoop down towards them, raking at them with their eyeball... claws!

Ivan charges for one, summoning his glaive to try to keep it at range and making a stab for it that will probably have rather gooey results if it succeeds, considering it is a giant eye and all.

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Lydia floats upward a bit so she can speak. "Yeah that would've been...pretty bad."

Hopefully it doesn't keep being pretty bad because the night is still young and they may yet be thrown out with the garbage. Still plenty of opportunity for that!

Eventually they are led into an area where they're dry. Well--the world around them is dry, they are still wet, and Lydia wrings out her hair before turning to look around at the world around her.

"Watched? Pretty much always actually." Lydia says thanks to the power of anxiety before looking up and.

"Ahhh---!" Lydia says, pointing. "Eyeball....Eye...Eye see it!"

She wings one of the fiends with an energy blast but it counters with an EYE LASER that freezes Lydia stiff.

She teeters a bit before falling over with a heavy clang.

...Towards Ivan's foot! WATCH OUT!!

DG: Lydia Seren has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Buers.
DG: Ivan has used his Tool Memory toward his party's challenge, Buers.
==============================<* Lapisera Mines *>==============================
============================<* CHALLENGE - Buers *>=============================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Some fiends can be found inside of the Lapisera Mines, most of them from the  
 Thunder Plains outside. When you come into this room, you find several        
 Buers: huge, winged creatures with a massive eyeball. They shoot out rays of  
 energy that threaten to paralyze, and swoop down with vicious claws!          
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
=========================<* Lapisera Mines - Round 4 *>=========================
==============================< Results - Buers >===============================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lydia Seren                         51 --(10)--> 61                Fail
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC                
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ivan                                51 --(0)--> 51                 Pass
Memory                              3   Combat  Effects: Fanfare              
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Lydia Seren                 40 --(20)--> 60                Pass
Conditions: Cripple|Injure(2)|Madness|Wound(2)
Effects: 
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Lydia Seren has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use
party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
DG: Lydia Seren has drawn a new Challenge.
=============================<* Lapisera Mines *>=============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Riding a Mine Cart *>=====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 In some places in the Lapisera Mines, the rails for the mine carts are        
 intact. You find one such stretch here... and it includes a chasm that        
 crosses a rickety bridge. Afterward, though, you find yourself racing         
 towards a Y-intersection. There is a switch -- which should not be too hard   
 to hit -- but you have to decide quickly which route to go. One leads to the  
 left, and curves up; the other to the right, and curves downward.             
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Exhaust==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

Ivan manages to stab one of the eyeball monsters, and some terrible things happen to it in visual and auditory terms before it explodes into pyreflies. The others flap about in exaggerated shock and horror at the the death of their fellow eye friend (aren't fiends already dead?) and flutter away in a hurry. If Ivan and Lydia watch carefully, they may see a single, shimmering anime tear left in their wake.

But Ivan and Lydia probably aren't watching carefully because Lydia has been frozen into a statue and is falling... towards Ivan's foot!

Ivan is a little less precious about getting his foot banged into than he is about being caught stepping aside while Lydia falls down in a heap, so he steps closer instead, trying to use his assassin reflexes(!) to catch her. Depending on how much metal momentum we're talking about here it might just turn into kind of a soften-her-fall and going down with her thing. But he tried!

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Lydia weighs a couple hundred pounds. Nevertheless, she can be guided to a rest so she just sort of flops onto the floor instead of crushing Ivan's foot or something. She lays there for a while--honestly her face is pretty hilarious looking since her mouth is frozen open in a funny shape--but eventually she stirs out of it, says, "Huh?? Wha?? I'm ready to fiighh----where'd they go?"

She blinks a few times before grabbing for Ivan's hand. "We did it! We survived!" She hops to her feet. "I guess a cat trainer isn't that great at fighting, but luckily this...cool knight(??) is here to lend a hand. That's probably what it is. Vlad's very knightly."

She looks around a bit before she points in a direction. "To more aventure!"

Past that door is a mine cart. And rails. And further ahead--switches.

"Oh sweet!" Lydia says, hopping on in. "I've heard about this from other drifters! You ride along the rails and have to hit the switches as you go along."

She sets the cat on her lap. "Going to trust you to do right by us this time, Schrodinger!"

She looks towards Vlad. "Hmm! I wonder where I got that name from?? Oh right, they have a collar. Anyway, uh, I guess I've trained a lot of ... drifters' pets! I guess that makes me pretty distinguished!"

"Meow." Schrodinger tells Ivan seriously.

DG: Lydia Seren has used her Tool Schrodinger the Cat toward her party's challenge, Riding a Mine Cart.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

Ivan feels a little nervous about Lydia being stuck with one facial expression since that's something he closely associates with dead people, and usually the dead people got that way because he killed them. He actually hums a little in his nervousness as he waits for her to come back to herself, which she may or may not hear depending on whether she's all there while she's paralyzed.

Fortunately, she starts moving around again soon, and Ivan lets out a relieved little sigh, though he gives a small jump of startlement when he looks up to find Lydia has taken hold of his hand.

"Hi again, Lydia, I mean Delfina," he says. Lydia talks about being saved by a knight, and points off toward more adventure, and meanwhile Ivan points at himself, questioningly. "A knight...? I thought I was a deceitful salesperson. Maybe... a fallen knight...?"

But regardless, he follows her! To a mine cart!

Lydia explains to him how mine carts work, according to drifter hearsay, and also, essentially, cartoon logic.

Ivan listens solemnly to this description.

"So it's going to careen into unknown places and we have to arbitrarily flip switches hoping they don't lead us to disaster?

A faint glimmer lights in his eyes. "I really want to do that..." he says.

If he is headed toward doom in several days, a mine cart ride was something he did not even know he wanted on his bucket list. They pile on in and Lydia leaves Shrodinger in charge of their fates once again, which Ivan accepts because while he's down with the switch flipping risks in general he still doesn't like making fateful decisions himself.

"You've trained them in a really esoteric skillset," he notes, regarding Lydia's cat training skills.

And then they're off! Hopefully they make it into a more favorable universe this time.

DG: Ivan has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Riding a Mine Cart.
=============================<* Lapisera Mines *>=============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Riding a Mine Cart *>=====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 2          | 
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 In some places in the Lapisera Mines, the rails for the mine carts are        
 intact. You find one such stretch here... and it includes a chasm that        
 crosses a rickety bridge. Afterward, though, you find yourself racing         
 towards a Y-intersection. There is a switch -- which should not be too hard   
 to hit -- but you have to decide quickly which route to go. One leads to the  
 left, and curves up; the other to the right, and curves downward.             
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure, Exhaust==========================================
========================<* Lapisera Mines - Round 5 *>========================
=======================< Results - Riding a Mine Cart >=======================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lydia Seren                         61 --(0)--> 61                 Pass
Schrodinger the Cat                 2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten            
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ivan                                51 --(20)--> 71                Fail
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC                
----------------------------------< Party >-----------------------------------
Leader: Lydia Seren                 60 --(20)--> 80                Pass
Conditions: Cripple|Exhaust(1)|Injure(2)|Madness|Wound(1)
Effects: Enlighten(1)
==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Lydia Seren has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use
party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
DG: Ivan has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Lapisera Mines *>==============================
=================<* CHALLENGE - Angra Mainyu - Level 3 Flare *>=================
|Type: Climax      |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 3          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 In the depths of the Lapisera Mines, you come to a room that had once been a  
 battle site. Strangely enough, the entrances to the room have a few bodies    
 in strange armor and uniforms -- Gebler, for those familiar -- outside them.  
 In addition, there is a huge hole where something (the Guts-Dozer) tore       
 through, and made its way out.                                                
                                                                               
 The chamber itself is a broad, flat room in a natural cavern. Pools of water  
 gather here and there, in places where craters and grooves were cut into the  
 ground. Stalactites are knocked over; rocks are strewn all about. Worse than  
 that, though, is where a fresh cave-in in the back can be seen. Out of it     
 floats a fiend larger than any you have seen thus far.                        
                                                                               
 Angra Mainyu resembles a Buer: a massive eyeball and a fanged mouth, with a   
 sac of skin and huge wings behind it. This one, however, is the size of a     
 behemoth, and it roars. It looses beams of light from its eye -- and, worse,  
 members of the group are targeted at seeming random by immense blasts of      
 flame.                                                                        
                                                                               
 OOC: Please pull the next card immediately after resolving this one; it will  
 be necessary to write a correct pose. Additionally, if you individually fail  
 this challenge, and are able to cast Blue Magic or otherwise use enemy        
 skills, you may apply for a Level 3 Flare Signature Attack on your next       
 advancement application.                                                      
=Dungeon Conditions: Suffer, Exhaust, Wound===================================
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

"You lost your memories, so how can you be deceitful?" Lydia points out reasonably despite Ivan literally calling her Lydia moments earlier but she clearly has forgotten about that real quick.

Honestly there's something sad about how the way for them to relax and try to unwind from the bad news is to pretend they're different people, but it's probably sadder that the kindest they could come up with is 'deceitful salesman' and 'cat trainer' but that's another matter.

Luckily...!! They Schrodinger seems to have the right idea this time and this time the cart takes them further into the mines rather than right back to where they came from.

Or a pit or something. Where is the cart leading them to? Lydia doesn't know but she can sense it--they will soon find the truth behind their missing identities!

Wait no that's stupid.

"This is pretty cool right? In a way, even better than shoopuf rides ... ... uh which I hear are pretty cool!"

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

"Being a deceitful salesman was my new identity that I made up," Ivan explains. Maybe being a knight was supposed to be his secret real identity that he forgot? Ivan is admittedly having trouble following the plot of this pretend amnesia story even though it's not that complicated and he came up with much of the premise himself.

They zoom through the mines in the minecart, and don't end up falling into a pit! It is momentarily genuinely distracting to focus on the excitement of rolling through the dark tunnels not knowing what awaits ahead.

"It is cool!" Ivan admits earnestly. They are functionally on a roller coaster, so it is pretty cool.

But finally they do roll to a stop, and as they exit, they find themselves in an open chamber unwelcomingly strewn with fallen bodies near the doors. Ivan casts a lingering glance down towards them as he and Lydia make their way forward.

"Were soldiers fighting down here for some reason...?" he asks.

But as they travel deeper into the chamber, they come face to eye with an enormous eyeball monster, which spews forth a torrent of fire down at them.

"Look out!" yells Ivan. But he doesn't really take his own advice, running diagonally along the edge of the flames and ultimately towards the creature. He propels himself upward with a leap and his own bursts of fire, and summons his longsword at the peak of the jump, trying to crash down on the fiend with his body weight driving down the point of his blade.

DG: Ivan has used his Tool Memory toward his party's challenge, Angra Mainyu - Level 3 Flare.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

"I guess so," Lydia looks around before suddenly stopping as her foot hits a man in a Gebler uniform. "Ahh--!!" Her eyes widen as she stumbles backwards. "G...Gebler..! These are Gebler's men!!" She feels the strength in her legs go out and she sinks to the ground in a crouch, sweating bullets once more. "I ... I thought it was just a couple dudes. But they have their army here??" She pants for breath before smushing her face with her own hands and trying to force herself to calm down.

And then she lets her hands drop and exhales out a long sigh, looking up to the giant eyeball monster.

"Oh shit it's fire. Oh shit it uses fire!" Lydia starts running about to try and make herself a more difficult target to hit even as she reaches for her Solais Emsu medium, fully intent on blasting it with a laser of light!

YEah she has two mediums that can basically do the sky laser thing.

She's...very focused in her talents.

"I--Vlad! You're immune to fire right??" Lydia asks. "...If you're not immune to fire don't pretend to be immune to fire!"

DG: Lydia Seren has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Angra Mainyu - Level 3 Flare.
==============================<* Lapisera Mines *>==============================
=================<* CHALLENGE - Angra Mainyu - Level 3 Flare *>=================
|Type: Climax      |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 3          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 In the depths of the Lapisera Mines, you come to a room that had once been a  
 battle site. Strangely enough, the entrances to the room have a few bodies    
 in strange armor and uniforms -- Gebler, for those familiar -- outside them.  
 In addition, there is a huge hole where something (the Guts-Dozer) tore       
 through, and made its way out.                                                
                                                                               
 The chamber itself is a broad, flat room in a natural cavern. Pools of water  
 gather here and there, in places where craters and grooves were cut into the  
 ground. Stalactites are knocked over; rocks are strewn all about. Worse than  
 that, though, is where a fresh cave-in in the back can be seen. Out of it     
 floats a fiend larger than any you have seen thus far.                        
                                                                               
 Angra Mainyu resembles a Buer: a massive eyeball and a fanged mouth, with a   
 sac of skin and huge wings behind it. This one, however, is the size of a     
 behemoth, and it roars. It looses beams of light from its eye -- and, worse,  
 members of the group are targeted at seeming random by immense blasts of      
 flame.                                                                        
                                                                               
 OOC: Please pull the next card immediately after resolving this one; it will  
 be necessary to write a correct pose. Additionally, if you individually fail  
 this challenge, and are able to cast Blue Magic or otherwise use enemy        
 skills, you may apply for a Level 3 Flare Signature Attack on your next       
 advancement application.                                                      
=Dungeon Conditions: Suffer, Exhaust, Wound===================================
=========================<* Lapisera Mines - Round 6 *>=========================
===================< Results - Angra Mainyu - Level 3 Flare >===================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lydia Seren                         61 --(45)--> 106               Fail
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC                
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ivan                                71 --(25)--> 96                Pass
Memory                              3   Combat  Effects: Fanfare              
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Lydia Seren                 80 --(0)--> 80                 Fail
Conditions: Cripple|Exhaust(1)|Injure(1)|Madness|Suffer(1)|Wound(2)
Effects: 
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: Lydia Seren is too exhausted to continue!
DG: The party led by Lydia Seren has failed this challenge! The party gained 0 exploration! If anyone needs to use party
management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
DG: Ivan has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Lapisera Mines *>==============================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Angra Mainyu - Mortal Gaze *>==================
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 3          | 
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 During the battle with Angra Mainyu, one thing becomes clear: this fiend is   
 stronger than you can hope to defeat outright. However, you may be able to    
 force the creature to retreat back into its lair.                             
                                                                               
 Unfortunately, Angra Mainyu intends to stop that.                             
                                                                               
 It hovers into the air, and its eye flashes. In the brief moment where it     
 does, perhaps the wiser of you will realize you must do something to not      
 look right into that eye -- for to do so will cause instantaneous             
 unconsciousness.                                                              
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Reckless========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

"I don't mind fire!" yells Ivan, from atop the eyeball monster. This wording seems a little too specific to mean he's actually immune to it.

The sword driven into the creature mostly just angers it, and it shakes about, continuing to strafe poor Lydia with light and flame. She manages to strike it with a laser, though the actual damage done is somewhat questionable; it seems readily able to take a lot of punishment.

It finally shakes Ivan off, and he hits the ground and rolls past before springing back up again, bringing a swirl of fireballs along with him as he rushes towards it again. The eye gives a flash!

...Does he understand that he's not supposed to be looking into the eye? Or that this is an unwinnable fight? Uh... maybe the smoke from his own fire attacks will obscure the beam.

DG: Ivan has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Angra Mainyu - Mortal Gaze.
=============================<* Lapisera Mines *>=============================
=================<* CHALLENGE - Angra Mainyu - Mortal Gaze *>=================
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 3          | 
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 During the battle with Angra Mainyu, one thing becomes clear: this fiend is   
 stronger than you can hope to defeat outright. However, you may be able to    
 force the creature to retreat back into its lair.                             
                                                                               
 Unfortunately, Angra Mainyu intends to stop that.                             
                                                                               
 It hovers into the air, and its eye flashes. In the brief moment where it     
 does, perhaps the wiser of you will realize you must do something to not      
 look right into that eye -- for to do so will cause instantaneous             
 unconsciousness.                                                              
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Reckless========================================
========================<* Lapisera Mines - Round 7 *>========================
===================< Results - Angra Mainyu - Mortal Gaze >===================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lydia Seren                         106 --(X)--> X                 
                                                Effects:                      
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ivan                                96 --(100)--> 196              Fail
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC                
----------------------------------< Party >-----------------------------------
Leader: Lydia Seren                 80 --(10)--> 90                Fail
Conditions: Cripple|Madness|Reckless(2)|Stupify(2)|Wound(1)
Effects: 
==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: Ivan is too exhausted to continue!
DG: The party has failed this challenge! All party members are now Exhausted. This attempt is over.
DG: The party led by Lydia Seren has been fully Exhausted by Lapisera Mines!
DG: The party will now draw a conclusion.
=============================<* Lapisera Mines *>=============================
===================<* CHALLENGE - Depleted Ore Deposits *>====================
|Type: Landmark    |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1          | 
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
 Unfortunately, the final chamber -- or the approach to it -- is too much,     
 and you are forced to retreat. Near the lowest levels, however, are places    
 where the mining efforts of this fallen city came to their end. There are     
 shiny places on the walls, where trace amounts of the metal that was being    
 mined may be found. You are able to locate some shavings of this -- which     
 may be analyzed later, or perhaps sell for a little gil.                      
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Lydia is promptly FLARED THE HECK OUT and goes down, smoldering. "I'm okay! Just....! Blfgghhh..."

And of course Schrodinger is nowhere to be found now even as Lydia lays on the floor smoldering. And uh.

Yeah it might be a good idea to get out of dodge while you still can. This monster might be a bit much for two adventurers to handle. Perhaps they should've brought a third! Especially since Lydia's usual 'artillery' method doesn't seem to be the best method of dealing with this one.

"I'm okay. Just...keep...yeahhh...." Lydia says dizzily as she lays there.

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

The only problem with the very wise plan of getting the heck out of dodge is that Ivan gazed into a certain stupid eye beam and also collapsed nearby.

They are spared further roasting solely by virtue of the fact that the monster doesn't seem to find them all that threatening anymore in this state, and returns to patrolling its territory for other threats, though it's not letting them at that final chamber where the TREASURE probably lies.

Lydia gets a minute or so to smolder by her lonesome before Ivan stirs.

"Uh... what?" he asks, addressing this to both Lydia and the universe.

Aah! They're lying around in the final boss monster room! This is bad, this is bad! Why aren't they already dead, they need to go before the universe realizes they were supposed to be dead from total party KOing in the monster room!

"What happened?!" he cries, sort of semi scooping Lydia up to try to drag-carry her to safety. In his frenzy he hasn't realized that the monster had just been sort of side-eying them from a distance, though the frenzy itself is riling it up again, so yeah, they should probably flee.

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Lydia is still pretty heavy but luckily Ivan has adrenaline and Lydia kind of helping out by running alongside himm if in a kind of hobbling way. At the very least, the fiend seems inclined to protect its mysterious TREASURE (or whatever is behind there) than it is to chase after them.

Eventually they get far enough away and end up in the lower levels where the's a bunch of shiny in the wall.

Lydia is immediately drawn to it, recovering enough to rub her hand against the wall. When she pulls her hand away it's with metal shavings along her finger.

"Guess this mine still has some use to it." Lydia says. "Jeeze...we're gonna have to try this again."

She looks to Ivan. "You holding up alright?"

Well they aren't dead.

And uh. Well. This was at least distracting from the primary problem at hand, at least it was for Lydia who is now thinking about how they nearly got eyed to death today instead.

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

Jeeze...we're gonna have to try this again.

Ivan looks ahead in silence for a few moments, blinking. Was this their last adventure? What a lame last adventure.

Or maybe it was just right, with a ridiculous ending like that...?

"I really don't know what happened in there..." Ivan complains. He feels fine, give or take a few burns. Lydia certainly fared a lot worse in that regard, so he can't explain his own nap on the boss room floor. At least it did take their minds off things for a while.

"But... yeah. Maybe we'll do better next time."